The chief of police of a small Alabama town has been forced to resign after allegations that his force was pulling over people who criticized them on Facebook, and stopping people for spurious traffic violations to fill their coffers.
Mike Jones, chief of Brookside police, 10 miles northwest of Birmingham, resigned on Wednesday.
The lieutenant governor of Alabama, Will Ainsworth, has requested an audit of the police force and town - home to 1,300 people.
Brookside has only one retail store and a volunteer fire department, but at least one police officer for every 144 people. By 2020, the police force made half its revenue from fines and forfeitures, according to local media.
The issues with the police have been going on for several years, and ensnared multiple local residents.
Mike Jones, chief of police of Brookside, Alabama, resigned on Wednesday
Michelle Jones has been campaigning against Brookfield police for the past three years
Michelle Jones told AL.com that she complained to the Alabama attorney general's office three years ago.
She had been pulled over in May 2019, and was fined $160 for running a stop sign - which she insisted she did not do.
Jones began criticizing the police in a series of interviews, and online.
She said she told them, in 2020: 'The person threatened me with an arrest if I did not take down my Facebook pictures and posts of their police officers, stop sending emails to the local politicians, as well as others, and
